Outline:
- What is the meaning of the word? By whom used?
- Are all men born “free and equal”? Debatable point.
- Great nations have been made so by great leaders. It is man’s finest duty to obey and follows.
- Without discipline, no progress is possible in human affairs.
The word “discipline” meant a scholar or a follower. In the ancient classical word, it signified one who attached himself to a spiritual leader, serving him and learning from him. The essence of the thought was that one recognised superiority and greatnes in another person, and submitted willingly to his leadership and guidance.
There is hardly a department of human life in which discipline does not prevail. The child or you in the home submits to the guidance of parents; in school or college, to the leadership of his teachers. In religion he or she obeys the instructions of spiritual leaders, and, in the State, the men who have been elected to positions of authority in the country have to be obeyed. In other words, man is a creature submitting to law and order. In a democratic community, man has a voice in the making of the laws, so the discipline to which he submits is of his own making.[the_ad id=”17141″]
The greatness of man, over all other living things, arises from the fact that he is capable of organizing himself. It is a bad thing if in the jungle near our home, there should be a number of wild animals. How much worse would it be if they were capable of making their attacks on man according to organized plan, under leaders! Not all men are capable of leading and inspiring a nation a great man is born only when great things call for him. When a great leader arises, it is the duty of men to recognise him, to submit to him, and to follow, him to death if need be. If men follow the dictates of their own individual natures, there can be no society, no nation, no social system.
A good school is one in which there is good discipline; the same is true of a good regiñent. That does not mean a school under a severe and cruel headmaster, or a regiment under an autocratic and stern commanding officer. A certain kind of discipline can be attained through fear and force, but it is the wrong kind. Good discipline is that which is accepted freely by all the disciples because they know that it is wholesome and just.
The greatest discipline of all is that which is personal, it exists within the individual. Our heart tells us that a thing is good, but our natural desires seek something else, some satifaction of the senses which form the lower part of man. In that case, the heart, the soul, must be trained to prevail over the senses and bring discipline into the State of man.”
